The Week In Trans 12/10/18

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Victor Polster as Lara.

Belgium’s nominee for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film is called Girl, and focuses on a transgender teen. However, Oliver Whitney warns in The Hollywood Reporter that the film has some major problems beyond the director choosing a cis male, Victor Polster, to play the lead character. The camera often seems to focus on the transgender girl’s crotch, and her life seems to go downhill at the same time that she starts HRT. [See more about Girl in Trans Media Arts.]

Two trans women were murdered this week. The Baltimore Sun reports that a transgender woman named Tydie was found dead on November 26. WXYZ-TV reports on a transgender woman who was found murdered in Detroit. So far, 24 transgender women have been murdered in the United States this year.

Roxana Hernandez

Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Senator Kamala Harris of California have asked officials at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol for information regarding the death Roxsana Heràndez, who died while in ICE custody. A report on her death which the agencies are required to make public has not been released, because the New Mexico medical examiner’s office has not yet finished its autopsy report. The AP story can be found at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has denied a motion to lift her stay on the ban on transgender people in the military. She says that the Justice Department failed to show in their written brief that the military would be irreparably harmed by the injunction, according to The Advocate. The Justice Department will have a chance to make its case in an oral presentation this week. Military Times reminds us that the Justice Department has also asked that the Supreme Court take up the case.

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement has a provision to protect LGBTQ workers. However, a footnote has been added to say that existing U.S. law is adequate to fulfill this obligation. The existing law does protect LGBTQ federal employees, but it does not apply to private companies who contract with the federal government. LGBTQ Nation has more.

President Trump has said that he would nominate William Barr to be the new Attorney General. It did not take long for LGBTQ Nation to find evidence of anti-LGBTQ bias in his past.

The U.S. Department of Justice has a new primary spokesperson. Kerri Kupec comes to the DOJ from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group labeled a hate group, as the Advocate discovered.

Andrea Balcher has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of her parents. She claimed her parents had physically and mentally abused her, but surviving family say that her parents had accepted her gender identity. The Daily Wire has this story.

Brianna Westbrook

Former congressional candidate Brianna Westbrook says that she was arrested during a protest in Phoenix and placed in solitary confinement by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. She claims that she was put in solitary because she is transgender, and was denied the estrogen that she takes daily. You can read about this in Phoenix New Times.

The head of one of the groups which fought to overturn Massachusetts’s state law on discrimination against LGBTQ people has admitted that the whole idea of a bathroom predator was something that they made up. He admits that it was easier to promote fear than to engage in a battle of ideas. You can read more at Into.

Indiana is once more looking into the creation of a hate crimes bill. In the past, such legislation has featured debate about the inclusion of transgender people. This time, in a break with the past, Republican Governor Eric Holcomb has said that he wants the bill to include protection for transgender people. We will see whether his preference is enough to sway the legislature. LGBTQ Nation has this story.

One particular high school in Indiana sent a form home with transgender students. The form is supposed to foster communication between the family and the school regarding the transgender student, but some advocates say that it could lead to outing a transgender student to a disapproving family. You can read more at LGBTQ Nation.

Peter Vlaming has been fired from his job teaching French at West Point High School in Virginia. He had been told by the school board that he had to use a transgender student’s preferred name and pronouns; he used the preferred name, but went to great lengths to avoid using pronouns for that student. When a warning by the school board proved insufficient to get him to change, he was fired, ABC News reports. Jamie Roberts pointed us to more on the story in The Virginia Gazette.

Nisha Ayub

A new species of sea slug has been discovered and named for Malaysian transgender activist Nisha Ayub. This particular species of sea slugs has characteristics of both genders. You can read more at Pink News.

Emile Ratelband has lost his court case. He asked to lower his legal age, saying, “We live in a time when you can change your name and change your gender. Why can’t I decide my own age?” The judge said that there was “no scope in legislation or case law to allow such a ruling.” This story comes from Pink News.

Italy’s lower chamber has passed revisions to immigration law. Among other things, the new law does away with granting asylum on humanitarian grounds, including to people who were persecuted in their home land for their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. People who have received asylum on “humanitarian grounds” will not have their documents renewed, according to Reuters.

Dr. Helen Webberley has been convicted of running an illegal medical clinic which specialized in gender services for children. The NHS did not approve her clinic, despite a huge need for additional providers of gender services. She has been fined £14,000. The Telegraph gives us this story.

A new study says that there is “insufficient evidence” to support the claim that HRT drugs pose a risk during surgery. This study was summarized in Healio.

A summary of medical studies on transgender children shows that current guidelines for the administration of medication result in improved mental health outcomes. This summary appeared in the Lancet.

A new bill to forbid the Federated States of Micronesia from hiring transgender people to work in the federal government was introduced by Senator Isaac Figir of Yap. The bill does not seem to have much support, according to Pacific Daily News.

The Dutch retailer C&A has put out a hiring call in Brazil, and they are specifically targeting transgender people to be their new employees. They went so far as to place their announcement on the transgender Facebook page Transempregos. Reuters has this story.

Manuel declared the winner.

Patricio Manuel has just become the first transgender male boxer to box, and win, in the United States. The Los Angeles Times had his story before the event happened. WKYC-3 has the story after the fight.

Yahoo profiled Amber Abass, a Pakistani transgender woman, who has had some trouble getting her family to accept her.

Capital Public Radio in Sacramento ran a profile of Michael Alongi and his mother Jeanne, as a look at a transgender children and their doctors.

A reading of I Am Jazz at an Ann Arbor, Michigan bookstore caused mixed reactions from parents. Thanks to Kristina Mayhem for pointing us to the story on the mlive website.

Chatelaine ran a piece by Amanda Jettèe Knox, in which the author tells of her transgender daughter.

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “The future is female.” Jessica Porten argues in Rewire that the future is non-binary.

Karina Samala

Broadly ran an interview with Karina Samala, who worked for the Army during the day and was known as “mother” by many other transgender people in the pageant scene. She is now President of the Board of Directors of the Imperial Court of Los Angeles.

Several transgender males who do not present in a stereotypically masculine way were profiled by Into. The point of the piece is that gender identity and gender expression don’t always match up.

It is well-known that transgender people are far more likely than others to attempt suicide or to contemplate suicide. USA Today put a human face on it, using Shear Avory as an example.

We recently reported on comments from Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer for the parent of Victoria’s Secret. He said that the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was about selling fantasy, and that transgender models were not part of that fantasy. Nikita Dragun responded with a YouTube video in which she did her own version of a Victoria’s Secret angel. This caught the attention of Insider.

In another response to Andrea Long Chu’s piece in The New York Times, Dawn Ennis writes in Medium “My vagina isn’t what makes me happy. Being ME does that.”

Of course other people felt the Long Chu op-ed confirmed their belief that gender confirmation surgery is wrong and needs to be stopped. The Christian Post for example published an article praising The New York Times for offering “a peek behind an ideological curtain” that they believe The Times normally filters all the news through. Even though this is not the TWIT Award section we break with tradition and give The Christian Post a TWIT Award right now.

Piers Morgan made another insult directed at transgender people, tweeting that Dick Van Dyke would have to change his name to “Richard Van Non-Binary-Gender-Fluid.” Dick Van Dyke replied with a picture of him appearing to be bored. Pink News has the exchange.

Joan Collins tells the Spectator that she went through a phase in which she dressed more like her dad and not like her mother. It didn’t last long.

Angela Ponce

The Miss Universe pageant will be held on December 16 in Bangkok, Thailand. The Blast reports that gamblers are betting on Angela Ponce, Miss Spain, who happens to be transgender.

Here is a story that is believable precisely because it is so strange. It seems that Dolly Parton once entered a drag contest, pretending to be a drag queen who does Dolly Parton. She did not win. She reports in LGBTQ Nation that these competitors had amazing costumes and intricate make-up, putting her to shame.

TWITs

Fior Pichardo de Veloz came from the Dominican Republic to Florida to witness the birth of her grandchild. Officials at the airport discovered that there was an outstanding warrant for her arrest, and detained her. She was sent to a prison for women, and was strip-searched. She was taken to the prison hospital as a precaution, and while there, a nurse asked for a list of medications she took. Among the medications was estrogen, which prompted the nurse to ask if she was transgender. Although the prisoner said that she was not transgender, the nurse wrote in her report that the patient was “transgender, male parts, female tendencies.” On the basis of this medical report, she was transferred to a prison for men, until someone realized that a mistake was made and sent her back to the women’s prison. For failing to listen to her patient, the nurse gets a TWIT Award. For signing off without doing an examination, or even asking sufficient questions, the doctor gets a TWIT Award. And, for not figuring out that a strip-search should have revealed the sex of the prisoner, prison officials get a TWIT Award. WWLP-TV has this story. A lawsuit she filed against the county and the jail was thrown out, but, a federal appeals court has reinstated it. Read more about it on Yahoo.

Barnaby Joyce, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, created a controversy this week by saying that religious schools should have the right to expel a student who is transgender. To be fair, he was not saying that the public schools should have that right, only private schools. However, he used the usual reasoning of safety and privacy as a result of sharing restrooms and locker rooms. For using a fake argument, Barnaby Joyce gets a TWIT Award. This story comes from Into.

Wilfred Brown, a pastor in New Orleans, was arrested for pulling a gun on a transgender sex worker. The report in Patheos says that the incident happened when a “sexual tryst went wrong.” Apparently, he wanted his money back, and when she refused the refund, he pulled a gun. For reckless endangerment, Pastor Wilfred Brown gets a TWIT. It should be noted that the pastor denies the charge and says he will defend himself “vigorously,” according to The Advocate.

MercatorNet seems to be obsessed with transgender people. First, Michael Cook asked, “Are Scientists Giving Up Trying To Explain Transgender?” (Answer: No, scientists are still trying to explain why some people are transgender. However, they may have given trying to explain it to you.) Then, Ann Farmer uses the case against Helen Webberly as proof that doctors use transgender children as a way to make money. (Dr. Webberley in particular could have made much more money had she chosen another specialty.) Michael Cook complains about a New York Times article giving advice to the mother of a “free spirit.” We get it, you think transgender people should not exist. But, we do exist. For repeatedly showing their bigotry, MercatorNet gets a TWIT Award.

Christian Headlines has an article entitled “Most Transgender Kids Will Change Back When Older, Studies Show.” The first line says, “Experts in the field are urging caution for parents of transgender children and teens, citing studies that show minors often change their minds about transitioning when adults.” But, the people who “changed their minds” in fact never declared themselves to be transgender. Since the clinical definition of being transgender requires at least six months of self-declaration, these people never met the clinical standard for being transgender. For passing along bad information, Christian Headlines gets a TWIT Award.

The reactionary elements in our world do not want to accept that gender is not forever fixed at birth and defined by the baby’s genitals. While science continues to find evidence supporting the existence of transgender and non-binary people some people just will not believe it’s true. Jamie Roberts let us know about this story in Inside Higher Ed about the government of Hungary which has withdrawn accreditation from gender studies programs. The story also talks about global attempts to undermine the credibility of transgender people. We give all reactionary elements a TWIT Award for not listening to those who study gender.

Walt Heyer is writing for The Federalist again. This time, he writes that nine people have complained about bad results from gender confirmation surgery in Oregon. No doubt there are some patients whose surgery was not what they expected. However, Walt Heyer is known to reshape stories to fit his war against transgender surgery. For continuing to use an unreliable writer after several people have complained about his misuse of their stories without their permission, The Federalist gets a TWIT Award.

TWIT is assembled by Cecilia Barzyk with additional content and editing by Angela Gardner. Care to make a comment on this post? Login here and use the comment area below

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Category: Transgender Community News